Physics 835: Classical Electrodynamics (Winter,
2004-5)

Physics 835 is the second quarter of a full-year sequence on Classical
Electrodynamics. The text will continue to be "Classical Electrodynamics," 3rd
edition, by
J. D. Jackson
. The instructor is David Stroud. The class will
meet MWF from 9:25 - 10:25 in McPherson 1041, with (occasional) meetings on
Friday from 8:30 -9:18.

Most course information will be available on this web site, and will also
be distributed by email. If you are not receiving course email, please
let me know (stroud@mps.ohio-state.edu) and I will add your name to the
distribution list.

Grades will be based on roughly weekly homework (25%), a midterm (30%) and
a final (45%). In grading the homeworks, I will discard your lowest
problem set, and obtain a percentage score based on all your other problem
sets. The midterm will be Friday, February 3 from 9:00 to 10:20. The
final will be Wednesday, March 16 from 9:25 to 11:25. Both
will be open book and open notes, and will take place in our usual
classroom.

During the winter quarter, I expect to cover material
corresponding to Chapters 6-9 and part of Chapter 10 of Jackson
(Maxwell's equations, plane electromagnetic waves, waveguides and resonant
cavities, classical radiation theory, and some electromagnetic
scattering theory). Some of the lectures may include material not in
Jackson.

The tentative syllabus for spring quarter is special theory of relativity
(chapters 11 and 12); some topics chosen from chapters 13 and 14, and
material drawn from more modern topics, such as photonic band gap materials,
nano-optical materials, and others.

Note: a useful online math reference is http://mathworld.wolfram.com, which
has lots of analysis, plus a great deal of information about special
functions. Two good books are "Tables of Integrals, Series, and Products,"
6th ed., by Gradshteyn, Ryzhik, Jeffrey, and Zwillinger (Academic, San
Diego, 2000), and "Mathematical Methods for Physicists," by Arfken,
Weber, and Weber (Academic, San Diego, 2001).

Each problem on each set is worth 10 points, unless otherwise specified.
You are free to discuss the problems with one another, but you should
write up your solutions independently. Problem sets will generally be
due on Wednesdays at 5PM in the box of the grader.

My office hours will be MWF 10:30 -11:30 in PRB2048. My email
is stroud@mps.ohio-state.edu.
The grader is Kohjiro Kobayashi (email koh@mps.ohio-state.edu, box in physics
department office). Please get in touch with him if you have any questions
about the homework grading.

NOTE: After February 15, my office will be 2048 of the Physics Research
Building. Phone, email, etc. will remain the same as before.

For this week, I recommend reading Jackson, chapter 6, secs. 6.1, 6.2, 6.3,
6.4, and 6.7. I also recommend section 6.6, though I don't plan to cover
it in class, except perhaps a brief overview. Further reading suggestions
will follow shortly.

Suggested reading for Jan 7, 10, 12, and 14: Jackson, section 6.6 (will not
be covered in class or in exams; purely for further insights) 7.1, 7.2,
7.3, and 7.4. I will cover the material in Jackson, chapter 7.5 and 7.8,
but somewhat differently from the way Jackson does it.

Click on the red circles below to download lecture notes in pdf format.
These are my hand-written notes, were originally intended for my eyes only,
and I do not guarantee that they are mistake-free. I am posting them in
case some of you find them useful.

oLecture notes for January 3 and 5 (.pdf
format). On p. 15 of these notes, second and third lines, the quantity
I denote u should have been called u_{field}, the energy stored in the
electromagnetic fields. The total energy is given at the bottom of the
page.

oLecture notes for January 7, 10,
and 12 (.pdf format). These also include part of my planned lecture for
Friday.